Air Battle
by clover bookcat
Summary: Remember in the Emerald arc when Emerald talks about his past? Do you also remember the air battle that supposedly occurred during that time with Gold and Crystal? But...What really happened? Spoilers for Emerald-Mangaquestshipping


**A/N:Well well, it looks like I finally wrote it! My first ever Pokespe fic! Although since I've never tried writing one before, hopefully it's not too bad. ^^; The pairing is Mangaquestshipping. XD Oh, and I know that this oneshot is slightly confusing, so if you have any questions, please look at the A/N at the bottom. Please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or Pokespecial. If I did, Pokespe would have replaced the anime and Gold and Crystal would be together by now. But, alas, no...-sigh-**

Air Battle

**Crystal's POV**

"It seems that you're beginning to understand now? Can you do it?"

"Yes!"

I gave the pair an appraising glance. Sure, I'd heard about how they had saved Hoenn, and I'd read their profiles on my Pokedex, but I hadn't been expecting Ruby and Sapphire to be this enthusiastic. Or, for that matter, prepared. I gave them a brisk nod.

"Then I'll join the battle! There isn't much time! Hurry!"

Turning, I took out Tupeon's pokeball and kicked it into the air, calling out, "Tupeon!" and releasing her. Latching her claws into the straps of my backpack, she gave a few experimental flaps of her wings, then gave a huge leap into the air, spreading them out and gliding rapidly across the sea.

As we approached the giant mass of energy, I saw Tupeon glance behind us. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the bright, leaf-like wings and recognized it as a Tropius. For a moment I tensed, afraid that I would have to take on another opponent.

The Tropius, however, caught my eye and gave me a little nod before reverting it's attention to the creature ahead. It was then that I recalled that Sapphire supposedly had a Tropius. I smiled.

"Always good to have another ally."

Then I turned back to face the creature ahead.

Time to get to work.

**Gold's POV**

From the corner of my eye, I saw Crystal speeding towards the giant mass of energy, a Tropius following her from behind. Looked like the first part of the mission was underway.

"OK! Think of something else!"

I turned my attention back to Shortie, who was staring after Jirachi with a frustrated look on his face. I had to grin—the kid was determined, I gave him that.

"Emerald, seeing your perseverance, I can't help but admire you." I said, rubbing my thumb against my nose (an old habit of mine), still grinning, "But…Wouldn't it be that way?" I nodded toward Jirachi. "The most important issue right now is not being able to move is heart. Even if you get into a fit now and say 'Try again!' and 'Think of something else!' it won't do anything. But I say…" I looked him straight in the eye, knowing that what I said next might determine the outcome of our efforts—"Not only 'Try again!' but also 'Must accomplish it!' Not only 'Think again!' but also 'Think harder!" Right?"

Emerald stared at me, looking shocked. I grinned. "Hello? Words can express your feelings, right?"

He still looked a bit wary, but then I got an idea. Taking hold of Emerald's shoulder, I turned him to face out to the sea, then pointed to where two small Pikachu were speeding along-one riding a surfboard with a red cap on his head, the other tied to several balloons and wearing a large sunhat.

"The ones that are trying to reverse the petrification are not only us. See?" Emerald looked down at the pair; it was impossible to read the look on his face. "The little guys are also here because they miss their masters-our Seniors' pokemon, Pika and Chuchu." I leaned back, tapping my billiard cue on my shoulder absentmindedly. "When it happened, they weren't in their pokeballs. That's why they escaped petrification. The others were petrified along with their masters!"

As Emerald continued to gaze upon the two Pikachu, I noticed Crys and her Xatu, Tupeon, flying around the sea Kyogre, a white speck compared to the deep blue water. As I watched, she directed Tupeon to dive and turn, up and down, and, although I hated to admit it, it looked like that old hag Brinca had done some good with us. However, even in the second that the thought occurred to me, the sea monster fired a high powered energy beam-small, but no doubt very, very powerful. Crystal, in response, directed Tupeon to the side and for a minute it looked like the attack had completely missed. Then Tupeon seemed to trip in mid-glide—which didn't make sense since it was in the air. It quickly regained its stance, but one of it's wings seemed to be bent at a weird angle. My heart sank. There was no way Crys was going to be able to keep fighting without taking any serious injuries.

Mantaro's pokeball was in my hand before I was even conscious of taking it out. Steadying the hand on my billiard cue, I raised it to my eye while aiming it at the edge of the Light Screen, then jabbed it sharply, causing the ball to rebound on the floor, releasing him. The giant ray Pokemon took in the scene at a glance, floating up into the air to give me enough room to latch onto the glider bar, his trusty Remoraids also arranging themselves around him, ready to launch at a moment's notice.

"Emerald!" I shouted, pulling down my goggles down firmly over my eyes, "Everyone's counting on you! Find your answer for Jirachi! We'll talk after that!"

When I chanced a glance behind me, though, I saw that he looked more like the kid that he was-lost and alone. For a second I felt guilty, but then I saw through the Light Screen that Wild Child Girl and Fashionable Lad were waiting at the bottom of the stairs. It occurred to me that they might be waiting for Emerald. I caught Fashionable Lad's (Or was it Ruby's?) eye, and winked. He grinned cheekily back at me.

I was still grinning as Mantaro took off, speeding across the ocean. Something told me that by the time Emerald and I did talk again, he would have his answer ready.

**Crystal's POV**

Tupeon was hurt. Badly.

Not that I hadn't expected it, of course-after all, that was what happened when you tried to engage in battle with a giant raging sea monster-but I hadn't expected an injury like this so soon. Back when we were in Lavaridge Town, I had bought two Hyper Potions (I still remembered the fight that had ensued when I realized Gold had spent his money on the cookies), but in the position I was currently in I couldn't reach my backpack. It didn't help that Tupeon was rapidly losing altitude, unable to stand the pain in her left wing.

Frantically, I ran through the list of possible options in my mind. I could always out my other pokemon, but none of them could swim-

And what looked like a miniature jet plane sped past me, narrowly missing Tupeon before spinning sharply around and revealing it's commander-Gold.

"Having fun, Miss Serious?" He asked sarcastically, directing Mantaro around behind me.

"No," I snapped, "And what are you doing here? What about Emerald? Did he connect with Jirachi?"

"Such a nice welcome, I have to say." Gold muttered, and I felt him begin to tug on my back pack zipper. "To answer your questions, one-I'm here to save your butt, and two-no, Emerald didn't connect his heart with Jirachi, so our Seniors are still petrified. And why-won't-this-stupid-thing-come off?!" He demanded, tugging on the zipper with each word.

"If Emerald didn't wish on Jirachi, why are you here? You were supposed to stay with him until our Seniors were free!" I said, ignoring this last statement.

"Well, what was I supposed to do when I saw you falling towards the sea? Sit back and watch? Besides, you and I both know that Jirachi won't connect with Emerald, not the way he is now. Better to let Fashionable Lad and Wild Child Girl take care of that. Aha!" He cried triumphantly, at the same time yanking the zipper back and thrusting his hand into the pocket. "Knew it'd go eventually-is this it?" He asked, holding a small spray bottle labeled 'HP' in front of my face.

"Yes, that's it. Wait, when you said you saw me fall…"

"Well, I was watching you, wasn't I?" He said absentmindedly, reaching up and using the spray bottle on Tupeon's wing. "There ya go."

Tupeon gave a grateful squawk, then flapped her wings to regain lost height. Which I was grateful for, since I could feel my face burning.

By the time Gold caught up to us, however, my embarrassment had given way to unease.

"Hey," I said as we flew back towards the enormous island sized mass, "Why weren't we attacked that entire time? We weren't too far away from where the battle was going on…You don't think-"

"It's a trap by the old geezer? Nah," Gold said, gesturing towards what looked like two dots up ahead, "It just means the lookout is doing its job."

The dots, I soon saw, turned out to be the Tropius from earlier as well as Latios. In front of them was a long line of enraged Pokemon, though none seemed to be attacking. As we drew closer, I noticed that whenever one of the Pokemon tried to fly forward, Latios would begin to glow and Tropius spread out his wings, which, even from a distance, I could tell looked very intimidating.

Then one of the Pokemon, a Zubat, saw us and let out a squeal, but before any of the Pokemon could react Gold yelled,

"Mantaro! Water Gun!"

This, combined with other multiple Water Guns from his Remoraids, shot along the line of Pokemon, fainting a majority and scattering the rest.

"Looks like Brinca's training paid off." I said, impressed in spite of myself.

Gold snorted. "It should have, all the stuff that hag made us go through for three months."

Before I could start scolding him for insulting Brinca, Latios flew up to us.

'_You saved her_.' He said to Gold; it wasn't a question.

"Of course! Saving damsels in distress is my specialty!" Gold proclaimed proudly, which earned him a smack on the head from yours truly.

Latios turned to me, ignoring Gold's various mutters, and nodded toward the hulking monster. '_It's gotten closer. Are you ready to fight?_'

I glanced up at Tupeon, decided she had recovered well enough, and said, "As ever, I guess."

Then Gold, who seemed to have recovered from his minor head injury, looked up and grinned, gave a jerk on his hand bar, and took off once more, yelling over his shoulder at the rest of us:

"Let's go!"

**Gold's POV**

I had to admit, flying was one of my favorite activities. Back when we were training with Brinca at Sevii, whenever I'd taken one too many beatings with her walking stick or even when I just wanted to relax and unwind, I'd let Mantaro out of his pokeball to fly out over the sea. The wind in your face and hair…The smell of the land on the breeze…If you closed your eyes, it was almost enough to make you forget all your worries, even a giant, rampaging sea monster.

Almost.

It didn't help much that said rampaging sea monster didn't like being flown around, either.

As Mantaro flew higher to avoid the incoming energy fin, I yelled, "Mantaro! Use Ice Beam!"

Ice shards formed and collected in the manta ray's mouth, launching forward as a solidified beam moments later, joined by several smaller beams from the Remoraids. I t hit the find below head-on, breaking through to the other side-and only left a small hole behind. The sea Kyogre, angered to a further extent, seemed thrash it's 'injured' fin harder, creating small tidal waves which quickly sucked any Pokemon that had been flying a little too close to the water underneath, despite Latios' efforts to nullify the attack with several rounds of Luster Purge.

"Damn," I muttered. This whole decoy plan was NOT going well. Since we had established (After much arguing, yelling, and much peace making on Latios' part) that Tupeon and Crystal weren't fast enough to avoid the monster's attacks, Crystal and I had traded off, this time having me distract Sea Godzilla with Latios and Crys holding off the enraged Pokemon with Tropius.

Not, I thought as I had Mantaro circle around for another attack, that it seemed to be doing much good. Because the sea monster was just energy, it felt no pain from our attacks, though we still got hurt and grew tired overtime.

"_Any ideas_?" Latios asked me, sending another Luster Purge at the monster; the impact made a hole about twice as big as my previous attack.

"How about attacking from both sides? That may work in confusing it. Water Gun!" I yelled above the roar of the ocean, the last sentence directed at Mantaro who reacted accordingly. Unfortunately, the attack was lost in another wave sequence the monster had caused.

"_Right,_" said Latios, who aimed a last Luster Purge at Godzilla (This was also cancelled by a wave) before speeding off.

"Okay," I muttered, "Let's see what-"I broke off as Mantaro dived down on his own, this time to avoid an incoming energy beam.

"Energy beams!?" I demanded once I regained my breath, "Sure, I can understand tidal waves, but _energy beams_!? Where the hell-what, Mantaro?" I asked, for Mantaro had been flicking his tail against my face to try to grab my attention. He nodded toward the monster, and as I followed his gaze I saw that a small area on its forehead was glowing a bright, greenish blue.

"So _that's_ where it came from." I said stupidly. "Okay, Mantaro, let's try Hydro-"And then it happened. Sea Godzilla, who had stayed in relatively the same area until then, lunged forward, fins first. Although Mantaro had flown high enough that the incoming attack couldn't reach us, I could see that one particular girl with pigtails, locked in combat with an enraged Jigglypuff, wouldn't make it.

Once again my body moved of its own accord, leaning down on the glider bar before I had fully taken in the sight below me. We shot forward, Mantaro's Remoraids using Water Gun at full force, but even so I knew we wouldn't make it in time, and let out a strangled cry:

"Crystal!"

**Crystal's POV**

"Tupeon! Psychic!"

Tupeon's eyes, turned toward the angry pink puffball ahead of us, began to glow purple, then let out an enormous force towards it. Unfortunately, the annoying thing was bouncing around, and the attack cleanly missed. I growled under my breath. This was ridiculous! I didn't remember Jigglypuff being this hard to battle before-

"Crystal!"

Before I fully understood what was happening, or even before I could turn around, I felt a giant thump on my back that knocked me and Tupeon out of the air, spinning around, my neck snapping backwards in the process. Then, to my right, I felt an enormous object fling itself down, slicing through the air where we had previously been. In a moment it was gone, but Tupeon and I continued to sail through the air, until Tupeon flung out her wings to catch the air and slow us down, all the while keeping her claws latched firmly onto my backpack.

When we had slowed down enough that I could actually open my eyes against the wind, the split second view that I caught wasn't any better. There was Gold, caught up in the middle of a giant energy fin, Mantaro flailing beside him. I watched in shock as Gold seemed to struggle helplessly, then let out a final kick and knocked Mantaro out of the trap, falling the whole time, until finally landing with a resounding splash into the sea.

"No!" I screamed, and Tupeon, almost as though she was reading my mind, made a huge dive, craning her neck to gain even one second's precious time.

Mantaro got to the water before us, diving straight in after his trainer, which left me and Tupeon to hover anxiously above the water, the guilt in my stomach eating at me.

"Gold…" I murmured, gazing at the blue water. A moment later, Latios was beside me, his sides heaving.

"_What happened_?" I didn't answer. I couldn't.

"_Crystal,_" Latios said, turning to get a good look at my face, "_You have to tell me what happened._" I still didn't move. "_Please_." He said, and this time I could hear the beginnings of panic in his voice.

I mentally shook myself out of my stupor, then looked up, although when I spoke it was like the air around me was distorted, and everything sounded weird.

"The sea monster…It threw itself forward and I didn't see it coming, I was battling the enraged Pokemon…Latios, if Gold hadn't pushed me out of the way, that would have been me." I paused for a moment to lick my lips-they were cracked, despite the fact that I felt soaked.

"Its fin took him down, there's no way he could have fought against something that big…The best he could do was to get Mantaro out of the way. They drew back afterwards, but he hasn't come up yet. Mantaro's gone in after him." I took a shaky breath. I wasn't going to cry, not now. I had decided I wouldn't until my Seniors were free, all those months ago.

Latios, who had kept his eyes trained on me while I had talked, now spoke. "_I was lucky. Gold suggested we try attacking from different sides, so I flew around behind it, but I wasn't close because I was stopped by another group of Pokemon._" He turned to gaze at the sea below us, and for a while we hovered there in silence, never looking away.

After what felt like an hour of this, though, Latios turned to me again, frowning.

"_I left Tropius to handle the enraged Pokemon by himself while I checked on you. He's strong, but he won't last long by himself."_

I nodded in recognition of this statement, but I kept my eyes averted from him. He looked at me for a moment, then leaned forward and nuzzled my cheek, and let out a low pitched purr. I stared at him, shocked.

"_Gold's strong, I think. I felt that kind of aura around him. He's not the type to die so easily_."

I felt the knot that had formed in my gut loosen slightly at his words. "Latios, I…"

"_Take care of yourself. Rald will kill me if something were to happen to you._" He said to me, then flew off in the direction of the shifting mass of energy, leaving me and Tupeon to float above the water in the continuance of our vigil.

We waited for what was minutes stretched into forever before Tupeon's eyes glowed and she let out a large squawk, after which Mantaro flew out of the water carrying Gold on top of him. He then flew up to us and nudged my arm, and I realized he meant for me to get on his back. I gently lowered myself out of Tupeon's claws and onto what felt like a rubber floor, then turned to take a good look at my companion.

I made a noise that was somewhere between a shriek and a strangling noise when I saw the condition he was in. There were several burn marks on his legs and face, where I had to assume the monster's energy had come into direct contact with, and his shirt and cap were torn and ripped in so many places that I doubted even Ruby, with his reputation for designing, could fix them. Miraculously, his goggles had remained intact.

I shook myself. Now wasn't the time to have stray thoughts—Gold needed my help. But, I admitted to myself as I rummaged through my backpack, that was the problem—it wasn't a Pokemon that was injured this time, but Gold, who was a human. The only useful item I had in my pack was the leftover Hyper Potion I had saved, but I didn't know if it could be used on humans or not. I eyed the little spray bottle dubiously. Even if it had no limitations for Pokemon, the makers who had labeled its uses on the back never clarified whether or not it was liable to human use. Was it worth the risk?

As I hesitated, Gold gave a low moan from beside me. Startled, I glanced at him, and felt my heart nearly stop in shock. Despite being unconscious, Gold's face was screwed up in excruciating pain, and his breathing was becoming shallow. Whatever I was going to do, I had to do it now. I leaned over him, holding the bottle at a careful distance. "Sorry if this hurts," I whispered, and pressed the button.

I heard Gold let out a hiss of pain as the medicine sprayed over his wounds, and I wondered whether I had made the right choice. As I continued to spray, though, I realized that his burns were beginning to heal and fade away, gradually disappearing entirely.

When I had squeezed every drop out of the bottle and had put it away, I reached over and shook him.

"Gold! Gold! Wake up!"

"Zzz…"

I froze. I couldn't believe it. All this time I'd been worrying, and he'd been _sleeping_? I didn't know what to do, so I did what I always did when I got confused.

I kicked him.

"Yeow!" Gold yelled, flinching up and clutching his arm. "What the—oh, it's you, Crystal." He blinked. "What happened? I remember getting hit by that thing, and falling, but after that—"

Somehow, seeing him awake and alive only made me feel more confused, so I settled on the one feeling that stood out over the rest: Anger.

And that's when I lost it.

"YOU COMPLETE AND TOTAL MORON!!" I screamed, grabbing the front of his shirt and grabbing him towards me, "What were you thinking, being so reckless?! What if you died?! What if—" I faltered, and lowered my gaze. "What if you died and it was my fault?"

Gold sat there for a moment, saying nothing. Then he asked quietly, "You were worried about me?"

I nodded, not bothering to wipe away the tears that I felt pouring down my cheeks. A second later I was bawling into his shirt, and Gold held me in his arms, rubbing my back soothingly.

"It's okay," He said, over and over again, "It's alright, we're all alive."

After a few minutes of this, I calmed down enough to choke out, "You knew?"

"Knew what?"

"How worried I was. About everything. Our Seniors, getting Emerald involved in this mess…"

"Okay, so I didn't know _that_ much," Gold admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, "But I could tell you were keeping something to yourself. You tend to, if you spend a LOT of time around a person for three months."

I didn't say anything. My cheeks were burning again. I didn't mind this time, though. Instead, I hiccupped into his shirt to hide my blush. "You're soaking wet."

"Well, that's what happens when you fall into the ocean." Gold said, "I blame Mother Nature for my future cleaning bill. My shirt's a mess—the currents ripped my sleeves up, too. Figures karma would bite me."

"Karma? What did you do this time?"

"Nothing."

"That makes no sense."

"Exactly."

For a second I sat there, grasping Gold's shirt, and then the next thing I knew I was laughing hysterically, clutching my stomach. Gold lifted my face up, wiping the remnants of my tears off of my cheeks.

"I'm just making you a mess today, aren't I?" He said, and smiled at me-it was a smile I'd never seen from him before, and it made his amber eyes glow and warm me from inside. The he leaned in, and I realized what he was about to do, but I didn't mind it, which was strange. I closed my eyes…

And Mantaro gave a loud cough. Gold and I jumped apart, looking away guiltily, Gold hastily turning to Mantaro and saying, "Whoops, sorry Mantaro. You haven't carried two people this long before, have ya?"

"I'm sorry too, Tupeon," I said, turning to my friend, "I should have returned you to your pokeball."

Tupeon shook her head, although I thought I saw an amused smile on her face-if that was even possible, since she had a beak. My blush returned for the third time that day. Just great. Now my Pokemon knew about my love life.

Gold looked around, then asked, "Where'd Latios go? We were fighting together before I fell, but…"

"He said he'd keep off the enraged Pokemon while he waited for you to come up." I answered, momentarily distracted from berating myself for my carelessness.

"Not anymore, he's not." Gold said, and pointed behind me with his billiard cue (I made a mental note to ask him how the _heck_ it had survived the fall). I turned around to see Latios and Tropius flying towards us, both looking battered but definitely pleased with themselves.

"_Good to know you're still alive, Cue Boy_." Latios said, in an uncanny imitation of Gold.

"Aw, man, coming up with nicknames is my claim!" Gold whined.

"What happened with the battle?" I asked Latios, ignoring him.

"_You remember that group of Pokemon that followed the monster around and kept us from battling at full power_?" Gold and I both nodded. "_Well, Tropius and I took care of them,_" Latios said, and Tropius ruffled his wings proudly. "_They won't bother us for a while._"

"That's great!" I exclaimed, and Gold looked thoughtfully at the monster before saying, "If that's taken care of, then I have an idea."

"_What_?"

Gold grinned. "I say we go for an all-out group attack."

**Gold's POV**

Falling hundreds of feet from the air, I decided from my position on the Light Screen, is not fun. Especially if it's happened to you twice in one day and you've landed painfully each time.

Our final try against Sea Godzilla had been mercifully short. While it was true that we had attacked with 6 party members this time around, Latios and Tropius had sustained a fair amount of injuries battling against the enraged Pokemon, and I still hadn't full recovered from my experience of being half drowned, half burned alive. Crys ended up doing most of the fighting, but one person and two tired Pokemon obviously wouldn't have stood that much chance against something that big. At least when we'd fallen the Light Screens had been flexible and absorbed most of the impact. Most.

While I would have been content to lie there like a rag doll and let the battle take care of itself, the voices coming from below me told me otherwise.

"Look! Up there!"

"Gold! Crystal!"

I opened my eyes to see the three youngest Dex Holders staring up at us, identical looks of horror on their faces. A part of my mind that wasn't brain dead told me that Emerald had taken off that moronic suit he usually wore and was his regular height-so it seemed that my prediction had been right. I tried to grin and sit up, but the pain I felt all over my body turned it into a grimace.

"Time's runnin' out…Did ya learn well? Juniors…"

**A/N: And that's it! How was it? Choppy? I think so, in some parts. Well, here are several questions I'm pretty sure are going to be asked, so...**

**Whether or not the Tropius is actually Sapphire's: It is (Thanks to Sunnybeam for telling me). He is also a male.**

**Whether or not Gold and Crys should have kissed without interruption: Oh my, I wondered about this for a LONG time. At first I was going to just have them stare at each other (Sort of like a long term scene) but I figured that wouldn't be like Gold to not at least TRY to make a** **move. But then I realized that I didn't know how to write that kind of scene, so this is what I got. Yeah, lame, I know...**

**Yep, Crys was struggling against an enraged Jigglypuff. Random. XD**

**Emerald and Gold have met before in this oneshot-I don't know whether or not the manga made this clear. I always thought that, if Gold knew about the plan and was sort of the leader of the group, he would have met Emerald beforehand.**

**Also, when Gold and Crys are talking about their training at Brinca's, and how Crys is stressed, this is sort of my way of advertising a future fic I'm planning. I intend to go into full detail about what they go through then, but that's why it's not really elaborated on.**

**Finally, if the ending wasn't very satisfactory-this oneshot, if you can call it a oneshot, is just a sort of "fill in the blank" if you will. It's really just to tell you what happened in the air battle that the manga never showed. I just wanted to write it out. And you all know what's going to happen after this, anyway. ;)**

**Well, if you have any other questions, feel free to review or VM me or whatever. And if you have constructive critism, PLEASE give it to me. I really don't want to write terrible fics for my favourite pairing. Hope you enjoyed!**


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